The Little Known Secret To Connecting With Your Audience

If applied, what I'm about to share with you has the ability to make you more influential in your home, on the job, in sales, or on stage speaking and attempting to influence audience.

Here's an absolute truth about influence:

People are more likely to be influenced by people that they agree with rather than people they don't agree with.

Think about it...

Are you more likely to do WILLINGLY do something that someone wants you to do if you don't agree with what they're saying? Obviously, the answer is no.

Now, are there sometimes exceptions to this truth? Of course. However, for the most part, people will want to listen to and be influenced by people they agree with.

Now, as a speaker, coach, consultant, or entrepreneur, why is this important?

If you want to become more influential, you must get people to agree with you while you deliver presentations.

But how is that done?

The foundation of any successful presentation is the ability to emotionally connect with and captivate the audience. It's when the audience feels understood, acknowledged, and excited to listen to you. If there's no connection, you can have the world's greatest content, but you'll fail to be as impactful as you'd hoped to be.

One of my favorite ways to connect with an audience right off of the bat is by using "Universal Questions." Okay, time out for a minute. Before we dive into what a universal question is, we must discuss the one thing that is more important than anything else in terms of you delivering any sort of presentation.

That one thing is conducting AUDIENCE INTELLIGENCE. I define Audience Intelligence as...

Your ability to get to know your audience better than they know themselves so that when they hear you speak, you are the obvious and undeniable solution.

It all starts with the audience. You must spend time getting to know your audience. You must study them, spend time with them, talk with them, ask them questions, and develop a clear understand not of what they want, but of what they need.

The way this is done is through the process of Audience Intelligence. Think of this as the data collection process for gathering all of the key points you must know about your audience in order to deliver a successful and influential presentation.

Once again...EVERYTHING STARTS WITH THE AUDIENCE.

In fact, you should never be the one determining what you're going to deliver during a presentation.

Your audience is the one who determines what you're going to speak about.

No, they're not going to literally tell us "Okay, today you must talk about this". What I mean is that we must get so deep into the hearts and minds of the audience that we know exactly what they need us to share without them ever deliberately telling us.

Here's some questions to reflect on to help you conduct the Audience Intelligence process:

• What's the audience's goals?
• What's the audience's biggest struggle?
• What do they secretly fear will happen if they don't accomplish their goal?
• What's their single biggest obstacle?
• How do they describe their problems to others?
• What's the most common excuse they make?
• What's their biggest doubts?
• What keeps them awake with cold sweats at night?
• What would bring them more joy than anything?
• What does success look like to them?

Do you see how this develops a picture for you as the speaker? It gives you a clear indication of what the audience needs you to address.

And this is simple. All you have to do is have discussions with your audience! Straight up ask them these questions. Don't overthink it. However, when they give you the answers, ensure to document them so you can review the most repeated answers. The most repeated answers will become what's most important for you to discuss during your presentation.

So, with that being said, your first step is to develop a complete picture of what the audience needs to hear. They don't care about YOU, they just care about "How is what you have for me going to help me?"

Give them what they need, don't bore them with something that you THINK THEY NEED!

Universal Questions

Now that you understand the very first step to be conducted prior to any presentations, let's discuss universal questions.

Universal questions are...

Questions that almost everyone (there will always be the 1% exception) in the audience will agree with.

Well, how do you know what questions almost everyone in the audience will agree with? Universal questions are based on Universal Experiences.

Universal experiences are...

Experiences that almost everyone in the audience has had at one point or another.

Well, how do you know what experiences they've all had? Because you conducted Audience Intelligence!

Are you seeing how all of this is tying in?

You know what is universal to your audience because you have studied them.

Once you've determined the experiences that are universal to your audience then you can write up a list of universal questions to ask.

Now here's one more note before I give you some specific examples. There are two types of universal questions: (1) General Universal Questions (2) Specific Universal Questions.

A general universal question is a question that pretty much anyone can agree with. An example of this would be:

• "How many of you have ever felt like you went through something that you just weren't going to be able to overcome?"
• "Have you ever felt like you could be doing more in life than what you were currently doing?"
• "Have you ever lost someone you loved?"
• "Do you ever feel like no matter how are you work, you're not getting the results you desire?"
• "Has there ever been a time in your life where you felt completely unstoppable?"

As you can see, these are "general" because they quite literally apply to just about every single person. Everyone, at some point of their life, has lost someone they loved. Everyone, at some point in their life, has felt like no matter how hard they were working, they weren't hitting a goal or achieving a dream. These questions reflect our natural human existence which is why everyone in your audience will be able to connect with them.

General universal questions are great for creating a quick sense of trust between you and the audience and get them to begin agreeing with you and saying "yes!"

Equally, if not more powerful, are specific universal questions. These are questions that are universal only to the specific audience you're talking with. For example, let's say I was talking to a group of my fellow Army Officer. Some questions I could ask are:

• "Have you ever wished that you could affect more change than you actually could in your Company?"
• "Has there ever been a time when you were planning for a field mission but at the last minute, things changed and you felt overwhelmed?"
• "Do you ever feel like what they told you back in ROTC about being an officer was just flat out not true!?"

Those questions are universal to my specific audience. Chances are that if you're not an Army officer, or in the Army, you don't relate to these questions, and you shouldn't! These questions are meant for a specific audience, not everyone!

These questions show your audience that you understand them and what they're experiencing. They connect on a logical level, whereas the general universal questions connect on an emotional level.

Although I've broken down universal questions into general and specific, I need you to understand that you should be using both throughout the course of your presentations. By doing so, you'll speak to both the head and the heart, which is how true influenced is achieved.

I recommend opening a presentation by asking a universal question. However, they're to be throughout your presentation. However, use them sparingly! Don't ask a question in every other sentence! It should feel natural and conversational. Once you get into the habit of asking these questions, you'll be able to incorporate them without any conscious effort.

Here's what I want you to do next: Identify the universal experiences your specific audience has had. From there, write down some universal questions you can begin to ask your audience so you can begin to connect on a deeper level, create a profound sense of trust, and ultimately influence that audience!

I hope this article found you well! If it did, share this with someone else who you think can benefit!

Talk soon!

-Deven Rodriguez